Death penalty controversy

FILE - In this Oct. 23, 2018, file photo released by Saudi Press Agency, Salah Khashoggi, left, a son of Jamal Khashoggi, shakes hands with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi announced Friday, May 22, 2020 that they have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving automatic legal reprieve to the five government agents convicted of his murder who’d been sentenced to execution. (Saudi Press Agency via AP, File)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The family of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi announced on Friday they have forgiven his Saudi killers, giving legal reprieve to five government agents who had been sentenced to death for an operation that cast a cloud of suspicion over the kingdom...

FILE - This July 7, 2010, file photo shows Nebraska's lethal injection chamber at the State Penitentiary in Lincoln, Neb. Nebraska prison officials cannot withhold public records that reveal where they purchased their supply of lethal injection drugs, the state's highest court ruled Friday, May 15, 2020, as it ordered the documents to be disclosed for public scrutiny. (AP Photo/Nate Jenkins, File)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Nebraska prison officials cannot withhold public records that reveal where they purchased their supply of lethal injection drugs, the state's highest court said Friday in a ruling that could threaten Nebraska's ability to carry out executions for the dozen men on its death row...

FILE - This July 25, 2014 file photo shows bottles of the sedative midazolam at a hospital pharmacy in Oklahoma City. Many of the medications being used to sedate and paralyze COVID-19 patients placed on ventilators and to also treat their pain are the same drugs that put inmates to death by lethal injection. Last month, nationwide demand for these drugs surged 73% during the pandemic. (AP Photo/File)

HOUSTON (AP) — Secrecy surrounding executions could hinder efforts by a group of medical professionals who are asking the nation’s death penalty states for medications used in lethal injections so that they can go to coronavirus patients who are on ventilators, according to a death penalty expert...

This undated booking photo from the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office shows Alex Zwiefelhofer. Zwiefelhofer is a co-defendant in the April 2018 killings of a Florida couple. Federal authorities believe Zwiefelhofer and fellow Army veteran Craig Lang robbed and gunned down the couple, Serafin and Deana Lorenzo, to finance a Venezuela trip. (Pinellas County Sheriff's Office via AP)

The two former U.S. Army soldiers met in Ukraine, where they joined the same far-right paramilitary group. After getting deported, they planned to take a boat from Miami to South America. They wanted to fight the socialist Venezuelan government and kill “communists.” That’s what Alex Zwiefelhofer...

This undated photo from the Alabama Department of Corrections shows Nathaniel Woods. Martin Luther King, III, the son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as family members of Woods, a condemned Alabama inmate, are asking the governor to to stop his execution. Woods is scheduled to be executed on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Woods and co-defendant Kerry Spencer were convicted of capital murder for the 2004 killings of three Birmingham police officers. Spencer was also sentenced to death for the killings (Alabama Department of Corrections via AP)

ATMORE, Ala. (AP) — A man convicted as an accomplice in the 2004 killings of three police officers in Alabama who were shot by another man was executed Thursday evening. Inmate Nathaniel Woods, 43, was pronounced dead at 9:01 p.m. CST Thursday following a lethal injection at the state prison in...

FILE - In this Sept. 20, 2019, file photo, state Rep. Tom Sullivan, D-Aurora, who lost his son Alex in the 2012 movie theatre massacre in Aurora, Colo., speaks during a roundtable discussion about the issues of gun control and the need for additional mental health measures with several survivors of mass shooting victims at an office in downtown Denver. Sullivan is opposing a death penalty repeal bill before Colorado lawmakers Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

DENVER (AP) — Colorado is set to become the 22nd U.S. state to abolish the death penalty after lawmakers on Wednesday approved a repeal bill that Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has pledged to sign into law. Passage had been virtually certain with Democrats holding a substantial majority in the House...

FILE - In this Sept. 18, 2009, file photo, Warden of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, Burl Cain, discusses the gurney used for lethal injections to Ruth Graham, far right and others as they visit the Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, La. Louisiana cleans its execution chamber at the state penitentiary daily, but it's been more than a decade since a condemned prisoner has laid on the chamber's black-padded gurney to die. Sixty-eight people sit on Louisiana’s death row, with no execution dates set. Though the state historically has been tough on crime and holds the dubious distinction as the nation's incarceration capital, Louisiana seems to be doing very little to carry out its death penalty. (AP Photo/Judi Bottoni, File)

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana cleans its execution chamber at the state penitentiary daily, but it's been more than a decade since a condemned prisoner has laid on the chamber's black-padded gurney to die. Sixty-eight people sit on Louisiana’s death row, with no execution dates set. Though the...

FILE - In this undated file photo released by the Georgia Department of Corrections, shows death row inmate Donnie Cleveland Lance, who was convicted of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend more than 20 years ago. Lance is scheduled to receive a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson, Ga., Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020. (Georgia Department of Corrections via AP, File)

JACKSON, Ala. (AP) — A Georgia man convicted of killing his ex-wife and her boyfriend more than two decades ago was put to death Wednesday, becoming the state's first inmate executed this year. Donnie Cleveland Lance, 66, received a lethal injection at the state prison in Jackson and was pronounced...

FILE - In this Monday, April 15, 2013 file photo, Pakistan's former President and military ruler Pervez Musharraf addresses his party supporters at his house in Islamabad, Pakistan. On Monday, Jan. 13, 2020, a Pakistani court, overturned the death sentence given to the country's ailing former dictator, saying a special court that last month convicted and sentenced Musharraf had been formed in violation of the law. (AP Photo/B.K. Bangash, File)

LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — A Pakistani court on Monday overturned the death sentence given to the country's ex-military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, a former close U.S. ally in the war against terror. The Lahore High Court ruled that the special tribunal formed to try the ex-president was not legal...

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2018, file photo, President Donald Trump talks with then California Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom during a visit to a neighborhood destroyed by the wildfires in Paradise, Calif. Gov. Newsom is wrapping up a first year highlighted by the bankruptcy of the country's largest utility, an escalating homelessness crisis and an intensifying feud with the Trump administration, along with record-low unemployment and a booming state economy producing a multi-billion-dollar surplus. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — During his inaugural address last January, California Gov. Gavin Newsom made only a passing reference to wildfires and never mentioned the state's largest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric. Both soon became inescapable topics. PG&E filed for bankruptcy barely three...